9/11 2001

[LegendRider]

Aside from the terrible images on television, my most distinct memory was a sign on 285 (the highway that circles Atlanta ) that said: NATIONAL EMERGENCY -- HARTSFIELD JACKSON AIRPORT CLOSED

[54ny77]

I literally ducked into a bar when the plume came rushing up W. Broadway. It was the closest indoor space to where I was standing outside. For the life of me I can't remember the name of the place or where exactly.

7WTC was where my old office was located as well, and seeing the images of it crashing down....just horrible, horrible memories of that day.

Forever life changing, for generations to come.

Originally Posted by fiamme red

I was watching TV later in the day at a friend's apartment, and couldn't believe my eyes when I saw video of 7 WTC collapsing in seconds. I worked in that building until June 2001.

[johnmdesigner]

I lived in Greenpoint, Brooklyn at the time and worked in NJ so I was driving across the 59th Street bridge and the GWB about 10 minutes before it happened. I remember how beautiful downtown Manhattan looked while I was stopped in traffic.
It was 2 days before I could get back to my apartment. My windows were open and there was white dust on the windowsill.
We went down to lower Manhattan after I got back. It was amazing how close you could get to the pile. I remember a corner deli where all the fruit outside was covered in white dust.
Probably not the best idea as we spent the rest of the day coughing our lungs out.

[moose8]

I had just landed on a flight from Boston to New York Laguardia and was taking the subway back to my place in Brooklyn Heights. At the time the only news was a flight from Boston had crashed and none of the phone lines worked so my family and friends were freaked out. Then for days ashes and papers rained down on our apartment as it was just across the river. For a long time after walking around the city I would burst into tears. Everybody in the city knew at least somebody who was lost because it was just so many lives. The scope was just so huge.

[rounder]

I was working on a job at the D.C. tax department. Someone heard that a plane had crashed into the world trade center. It sounded like a lone plane for some stupid reason had crashed into the building. Then a few minutes later we heard that another plane had crashed into the world trade center. Some one said... terrorism, Osama Bin Ladin. As a contractor...no one said to leave, but we did. So, we left the facility. One of the coworkers offered to drive us to our cars. We were driving along listening to the radio misinformation...that there was a truck bomb at the Statehouse, trains were not running, etc. Nobody knew what was going on.

We drove to a restaurant and watched R.Guiliani walk through the streets, etc. A co-worker drove us to our cars.

In D.C., everything changed after that day. High security everywhere, includng at the Smithsonian.

Our lives all changed after that.

[lucieli]

Some amazing stories shared here. We did not know anyone that died but two of my friends lost siblings that day. For me, 9/11 was already an unforgettable day before the first plane struck the north tower. I was in upstate NY preparing to attend the funeral of my father who had died unexpectedly on 9/8. My wife was in the final week of a difficult pregnancy and could not make the trip from Boston. Just before we were to leave my moms house for the drive to the funeral home, my brother in law came in and told us to turn on the TV, a plane has hit one of the World Trade towers. We watched in horror long enough to see the second plane strike the south tower and then we had to leave for the funeral. Much of the rest of the day is a blur for me. Immediately after the funeral, I drove straight home to Boston to be with my wife. Six days later on 9/17, our son was born.

[velomateo]

Such an awful day, seeing all the photos brought back so much sadness. I was working for United then and I had received aircraft 6012 just a few days before in LA. I don't know if any of the crew from that day were onboard when it struck the WTC on 9/11.
My wife took our boys to NYC for the 4th of July that year, and were fortunate to get seated in first class for the leg to NY. My wife told me how nice the crew had been to the boys, then 10 and 6 years old. The Captain let them in to the cockpit and allowed them to seat in the seats, after they landed at JFK. We have a photo of my oldest, wearing one of the pilots hats while seated behind the yoke. The placard on the instrument panel reads 6012.

[paredown]

We had just moved to London--my wife was already at work, and I was in the apartment trying to 'get sorted' as the Brits would say, when I got a call on my cell from another of the American husbands that had followed their wives over. No TV yet, but got online to watch a bad feed posted somewhere online of the first collision, and then could not get live streaming as the web pretty well locked up. Followed up with BBC Radio, and then heard the news about the second strike. Horrifying.

A couple of days later, the same friend convinced me to go to the 'impromptu' memorial at Grosvenor Square across from the US Embassy--because of the number of Brits who were killed and the strong ties between the City and Wall Street. It covered most of the Square--tight security, but a heart-breaking display of 'in memoriam'--pictures, candles, flowers. And as has been mentioned, eerily quiet despite the crowds. The second time I remember crying in public (the first was the Vietnam memorial).

For months afterwards, the normally reserved Brits (when they heard our accents) would commiserate and ask if we had lost anyone...

Fast forward a few years--and we moved to Brooklyn. I was a New York neophyte when the towers fell, and I never did see real TV coverage, and did not know the geography well enough to know that the Brooklyn fire companies were the first on the scene. So I walk out of our new apartment on State Street (out to look for OJ) on the first morning, and I see a red Flyer Wagon on the sidewalk in front of the tiny Fire Company that shared our block--and when I get closer, I realize that I'm looking at their memorial for their fallen comrades from 9-11----and it all comes rushing back....

(You can see the memorial on the left; the wagon used to be full of flowers...Pictures in window above the bench of the five firefighters lost from just this company.)

[donevwil]

I was in eastern Oregon on a bike tour. On the 10th I met the woman who would become my wife, on the 11th camp awoke to radio being played over the PA. It was hard to fathom what was happening without visual input, we didn't see pictures of the devastation until the next day's newspaper and the first video I saw was at the hotel room on the way home the following Sunday.

[kingpin75s]

Working in a Data Center that was also a DOD high performance computing facility at the time. We were all given the option to head home JIC. Headed home to watch the sad and surreal event unfold.